don't know what you're missing

Yesterday the girls' novice rowing team was supposed to go out for a workout in the park under the supervision of Jonathan Lafferty. No worries, right? Lottie, our women's captain, told us it was just for fun, to get the team working together out of the water. Most of the girls had tutorials or work to do, so it ended up just being Melody and Adrienne and I who went. We met Lafferty (affectionately known by the entire college as Laff or Laffy) at the Uni Parks and set off for a light jog to our area. That was fine, and the first set of sprints was fine, but by the middle of the workout I thought I was going to die. Okay, dying is very much an exaggeration, but collapse was a serious option. It wasn't that long, fifty minutes, but fifty minutes of just alternating sprints, push-ups, and sit-ups is torture my body hasn't done in two years. It was achingly, agonizingly long. But the best part about exercise is when you're done. For the next hour or two you're on a high, you feel absolutely on top of the world. It's ALMOST worth the work part. But not.

But skimming along the surface of the river as the sun rose this morning was DEFINITELY worth it. There is something about hearing the soft splash of oars sliding in and out of the water before the sun has even woken up, that secret time that ninety-five percent of humanity doesn't know exists, the daily miracle of the resurrection of the world, that is incredible. It's one of my favorite feelings in the world.

"Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
'Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?...
Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,
that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?
The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment...
What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?
Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?" Job 38: 1-7, 12-14, 19-20

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." Mark 1:35